1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related generally to dual agent processes coupled to dual active server processes.
2. Description of the Related Art
Some systems include many components (e.g., server computers executing server processes) and attempt to provide fault tolerance so that there is no single point of failure. For example, if one component in the system fails, the entire system does not fail.
Continual availability of data services is important for disaster recovery situations in which customers need to recover access to their data immediately. To have continual availability of services provided, redundancy is important. Some conventional architectures include a primary server computer executing a primary server process and a backup server computer executing a backup server process. If an error occurs at the primary server process, the backup server process is used for processing while the primary server process is undergoing repair and/or recovery. The primary and backup server processes may be located at different physical sites. The use of the backup server process at an alternate or remote site can reduce the recovery time of the primary server process because the backup server process is continually able to process new requests.
An agent process is software that acts on behalf of, for example, a user or server process, to perform tasks within an application program. In some conventional computer systems, the agent process registers with the primary server process (i.e., notifies the server process that it exists). Then, the primary server process and the agent process can submit requests to each other, provide data to each other, etc. If the primary server process fails, then a user notifies the agent process that the agent process is to re-register with the backup server process. For example, the user may use a Web browser at a console connected to the agent process to notify the agent process to re-register with another server process. The term “Web” refers to the World Wide Web, which is a network of server computers that contain programs and files, which in turn may contain hypertext links to other documents available through the network. The term “Web browser” refers to a program that initiates requests to a Web server computer and displays the information that the Web server computer returns. The agent process then registers with the backup server process.
Requiring user intervention when a primary server computer and/or primary server process fails is time consuming and inefficient. This may also lead to human errors. Therefore, there is a need in the art for improved use of dual server processes.